RBI Expands Inside Sales Department
Bill Fuentes named Inside Sales Manager

September 29 - Mike Kenney, Vice-President of RBI Bearing, Inc. announced the appointment of Bill Fuentes to the position of Inside Sales Manager today.

"Bill joined RBI in July 2002 as a District Sales Manager and was promoted to Operations Manager in July 2002. In his new position, Bill will manage and direct the efforts of our Inside Sales team. He understands our business and has proven himself as an effective leader during his career with RBI", said Mr. Kenney.

Mr. Fuentes then announced the recent addition of 3 new people to his team - Kevin Jacobs, Jeanette Greco and Dean Lucki.

"This is an investment in our ability to support the growth of RBI. Each has a strong background in sales and customer service, and we are very excited to have them on board."

Mr. Kenney added, "Our company has grown by focusing on customer service day in and day out. To be successful in today's market you can't just sit back and wait for the phone to ring. We know what we have to do, and we are going to make sure all of our customers know RBI is the best in the business."

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Steel Shortage Still Looms
Steel scrap prices reach $302/ton

WASHINGTON: A worldwide steel scrap shortage, largely created by massive Chinese demand, is creating “havoc” for US industries and forcing emergency action to cap prices in parts of Asia. American steel-consuming industries pleaded for the government to suspend all anti-dumping and anti-subsidy tariffs on imports, meeting swift and sharp opposition from the US steel industry.

Steel scrap prices in the United States — measured by the benchmark “number one” heavy melt scrap — doubled from 77 dollars a ton in early 2001 to 156 dollars a ton in December 2003 before skyrocketing to an unprecedented 302 dollars a ton last month.

“These sharp price increases and the potential for scrap shortages are having significant, harmful effects on important manufacturing sectors of the US economy,” said the Emergency Steel Scrap Coalition, grouping steel makers, auto parts manufacturers and other industries.

Scrap exports from the United States doubled from 6.3 million tons in 2000 to about 12 million tons in 2003, the coalition said. The pain is being felt by steel consumer industries, just three months after they celebrated President George W Bush’s decision to rescind import tariffs aimed at protecting the domestic steel industry.

A steel shortage was “causing havoc for US manufacturers” said the Consuming Industries Trade Action Coalition (CITAC).

“US manufacturers are facing major steel supply disruptions and shortages that could contribute to plant closures and job losses in a matter of weeks or months,” CITAC said in a statement.

CITAC chairman Michael Fanning called on the Bush administration to suspend existing anti-dumping and anti-subsidies tariffs on steel. There are about 131 such orders on iron and steel products, he said.
“Under the current crisis market conditions, we believe that these restrictions should be suspended,” Fanning said.

A surge in steel prices helps “integrated steel mills”, the least efficient part of the American industry, because they barely use scrap and can enjoy the higher prices commanded by steel. But steel “minimills”, which rely heavily on scrap to produce steel, have been hit hard.

“These are very unusual times. There is tremendous uncertainty,” said Thomas Danjczek, president of the Steel Manufacturers Association, which represents 90 percent of the American minimills.

Prices were being pushed higher by Chinese demand, a weaker dollar, and foreign trade restrictions, he said.

“China has an insatiable appetite for a lot of raw materials,” Danjczek said, noting in particular steel scrap, lead, brass, copper, recycled paper and alloys.

He scoffed at the CITAC call for a suspension of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy import tariffs on steel, noting that Bush had already dissolved the “safeguard” steel tariffs to shield American industry from imports.

“Here is a group that got caught with their hand in the cookie jar and now they want to get rewarded for that,” Danjczek said.

Similar disruptions are being felt in Asia. South Korea has issued a temporary ban on exports of scrap iron and steel bars, beginning Monday. In Seoul, the Finance and Economy Minister Lee Hun-Jai warned a further surge in raw material prices could delay the recovery of consumption and undermine growth. Vietnam cut tariffs for the second time in less than a week on March 3 to curb prices.

In the United States, analysts were split over the value of suspending all steel import tariffs.

Daniel Ikenson, policy analyst with the Washington-based Cato Institute’s Center for Trade Policy Studies, said he favored provisions allowing tariffs to be dropped in times of shortage.

“In the past six months, steel prices have gone through the roof for a lot of products, primarily because demand has been increasing not only here but in China and elsewhere,” he said.

Ikeson doubted US tariffs would be dropped because of the “vested interests” in the steel industry.

“But I think it is a good opportunity for CITAC and others to bring to the fore the absolute absurdity of import restrictions, particularly in cases where prices are spiking.”

Economic Policy Institute analyst Robert Scott disagreed. The tariffs were in place to correct unfair trade practices, he said.

“We have to use every tool available to level the playing field,” Scott said.

The steel tensions were global, he added. “China is a vast consumer of steel now,” Scott said. “They have increased their steel production by more than 50 percent from 2000 to 2002 alone and their imports have gone up similarly.” —APP/AFP

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What is a Basic Dynamic Load Rating?
by Mike Mortensen - Director of Engineering RBI-USA

A Basic Dynamic Load Rating is a theoretical, statistically based value of load that a bearing can carry for 1,000,000 revolutions with 90% reliability. For a radial bearing, this rating was based on the amount of pure radial load that a rotating inner ring could tolerate for 500 hours at a 33-1/3 RPM.

Bearing manufacturers typically display these values in their catalogs as “Cr” for radial bearings and “Ca” for thrust bearings.

Most bearing companies base their Basic Dynamic Load Ratings using this method. In the US, you may sometimes encounter bearings using a C90 designation for their dynamic load rating. This load rating method is based on a 90 million revolution statistical model. A C90 rating for a bearing has a value about ¼ of the ABMA or ISO rating. It is possible to convert ratings based on the 1 million or 90 million revolution method to the other using the following formula.

C1 = C90 x 3.857

For further information on how Basic Dynamic Load Ratings are determined please refer to ABMA Standards 9 and 11 or ISO 281:1990.

Have a question or topic you would like to see covered? Click here to let Mike know!

Final Word
41% of Chinese Private Business Run By Women

BEIJING, Sept. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Women entrepreneurs are running more than 40 percent of China's private businesses, said Gu Xiulian, vice-chairwoman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC), Thursday.

Gu, also president of the All-China Women's Federation, said that women also manage 28 percent of the state-owned enterprises and collective businesses and 28 percent of the shareholding companies.

About 50 percent of the companies led by women are in the processing sector, while about 45 percent are in the service sector, she said.

 "These women entrepreneurs have made great contributions to China's economic and social development in leading their businesses forward by overcoming difficulties in the market economy," she said.

Statistics show that 20 percent of China's entrepreneurs are women. Twenty-one percent of the female entrepreneurs start business on their own, up 17 percent from ten years ago, and near the level of male entrepreneurs.

In addition, 63 percent of companies launched or run by women hire more women for more than half of their employees.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-09/16/content_1990998.htm

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